Alias|Wavefront has announced its new Maya 5 can be downloaded immediately by customers on full annual maintenance and registered for eSupport via www.aliaswavefront.com/maya/support, a week before its due to ship, May 1, 2003, for new and upgrading customers. Maya 5 offers enhancements especially helpful for character animation, dynamics and polygonal modeling, and has become more applicable to 2D artists, Web developers and technical illustrators.

International toy and game company University Games has formed an alliance with Warner Bros. Consumer Products to create a number of JUSTICE LEAGUE products, based on the popular DC Comics’ comic book series and Cartoon Network’s hit animated show that includes the world’s most powerful superheroes: BATMAN, SUPERMAN, WONDER WOMAN, GREEN LANTERN, MARTIAN MANHUNTER, HAWKGIRL and THE FLASH.

Hong Kong-based animation studio STVDIO Media has produced an animated spot for Coca-Cola’s Slurpee "Brainfreeze" product in Singapore and its agency M&C Saatchi. DR. BRAINFREEZE'S LABORATORY features the creator of the ice-cold Slurpee drink, Dr. Brainfreeze, who loves his drink even though he has to go to great lengths to thaw out his head after each sip. He employs various gadgets such as hairdryer and a blowtorch-wielding robot to thaw out. The animators used a DEXTER'S LABORATORY inspired style for the mad doctor.

Toon Boom released its latest version of USAnimation with improved features and a new name to distinguish one of the most widely used 2D animation softwares in the world. USAnimation OPUS features a new user interface for users to configure layouts to suit their own workflow preferences. Camera, Xsheet, Paint and Scene Planning functions have been merged into one Universal Stage Module. "Our next generation of vector technology allows more functionality and increases quality of the work," said Joan Vogelesang, Toom Boon Technologies' COO.

Vancouver-based Atomic Cartoons is showcasing four new properties at MIP-TV 2003. The creators of ATOMIC BETTY (recently picked up by TELETOON Canada, Teletoon France and Cartoon Network Europe), are presenting animated trailers of DENNIS, DYSFUNCTION JUNCTION, DIRTY LIL’ BASTER and THE CARNEYS at the spring television market in France. DYSFUNCTION JUNCTION (26x22) is an irreverent primetime social commentary for adults about a well-to-do family that goes bankrupt and is forced to move into a trailer park.

Maxon has released Cinema 4D R8.1, an update of its modeling, rendering and animation software, which is free to download for all owners of Cinema 4D R8. New features include HDRI and new particle effects. Full support for HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imagery) is an eagerly awaited improvement to the Advanced Render module, according to Paul Babb, Maxon CEO. This new feature enables users to take full advantage of special 96-bit HDRI photographs, which represent the complete brightness range of the environment they were taken in.

Jan Nagel joined the jadooWorks marketing team as a consultant it was announced by CEO Rajiv Marwah. Along with Elizabeth Koshy, North American marketing director of jadooWorks, Nagel will provide business development and marketing services in Southern California. Since 1991, Nagel has done marketing and business development for production studios including Dream Quest Images, Calico Entertainment and VirtualMagic Animation. She also is president of Women In Animation.

The hot buzz at the Training Conference and Expo February 22-27, 2003 in Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center (www.trainingconference.com) was about graphics and animation, especially Flash (Macromedia had a monster presence at the show, as did Adobe). The huge show, which serves the nation’s $100-billion-plus training industry, featured seminars on using animation, gaming and simulation to train corporate executives, managers and sales forces more effectively than by traditional boring text-based training generated with tools such as Microsoft Word PowerPoint.

Disney director Steve Trenbirth joins Mad Cow Pictures founder Steve Sagovac as co-owner of the Australian animation company. Before directing JUNGLE BOOK 2, Trenbirth was animation director on Disney’s Annie Award nominated LADY & THE TRAMP 2 and Annie Award winning LION KING 2. Mad Cow offers Flash and traditional animation services, specializing in character design/development, storyboards, Leica reels and is developing its own projects including OOSTEVEN: PLAYGROUND PRIVATE EYE and LEEROY & LOU-ANNE.

Richard Bazley, a lead animator on the animated features HERCULES, POCOHONTAS, OSMOSIS JONES and IRON GIANT, among others, has come on board as director of BA20's 78 x 7-minute Flash animation series RIP, THE ANGRIEST PIG IN THE WORLD. Created by cyberpunk author Steve Aylett, and produced by BA20 Entertainment, the series is described as "Tex Avery doing Beavis & Butthead." Bazley's company Bazley Films will produce the show in the U.K.

John Halfpenny has just posted MONOPOLIS, his new flash animation depicting a world with questionable values. Also, check out Gogue’s recently completed work in the conceptual art gallery on the official Terminator 3 website. New in the Showcase, the flash animation work of Barry Munden bringing a little old-fashioned Sci-Fi to the web.



Click here to visit the Showcase.

Heading into NATPE 2003, Canada's Studio B has announced new shows and deals, and is aiming to attract some international co-production deals during the upcoming trade show. Currently the studio is in development on SIMON STIMPLE (26 x 22-minutes) for TELETOON.

Toronto-based independent animation house Cuppa Coffee recently completed a commercial for Nissan Almera. "A car commercial is always a unique challenge," said executive producer Adam Shaheen. "You really need to demonstrate difference from the other cars out there, and our goal was to show that difference through the class and style in the illustration reference, and building a relationship between the style, the characters and the product." Working with Mexico’s OMNI Producciones with a brief from agency C. C.

Content developer ScreamDesign.com has launched its original Web tool Flash Blaster II, which helps users create high-end Flash animations without software or training. According to ScreamDesign, even novice users can create custom, professional-quality Flash animations in a matter of minutes. FlashBlaster gives users access to a creative library of Flash animation templates, which can be modified easily to create personal messages with unique graphics, music and sound.

VH1 and Mondo Media will debut their new special ROCKSTROLOGY on January 2, 2003 on VH1. The show features humorous animated interpretations of psychic predictions for the year 2003. ROCKSTROLOGY answers all those burning questions about today's hottest musicians and celebrities. Get the latest on Jennifer Lopez’s romance, find out what’s in store for Marilyn Manson and take a peek into the future career of Jack Osbourne.

Toronto-based independent animation company Cuppa Coffee is not for sale. Owner Adam Shaheen reportedly turned down a US$38 million offer from a U.S. and Japan-based broadcast consortium. According to a statement released by Cuppa Coffee, the consortium offered Shaheen a deal which involved expanding the Toronto facility and opening a second studio in Tokyo that would create series animation exclusively for the Asian market. Shaheen responded saying, although the offer was flattering, he was never seriously interested.

Hollywood-based Unbound Animation recently completed a spot for the British kids' lunchbox product, Munchsters' Lunchpods. Unbound was hired by Viacom Brand Solutions as part of its Munchsters' " MegaBowl" promotional campaign to air on Nickelodeon U.K. The 30-second spot opens with pre-teens Whak and Kayo, sitting at a table looking glumly at their empty lunchboxes. A fly buzzes out of the nasty lunchboxes, while the voiceover tells them to forget their old boring sandwiches... Munchsters' Lunchpods are more fun, cool and taste great!

Macromedia Flash is the standard for Web animation. But as more and more animators are discovering, it can also be used to produce animations for television efficiently, inexpensively and without compromising quality. In the new book FLASH MX -- DESIGN FOR TV AND VIDEO, authors Janet Galore and Todd Kelsey focus on the evolution of Macromedia’s Flash from a fairly simple Internet animation tool to the sophisticated program that is currently being used for high-end television broadcast.

Burbank, California's S4 Studios is a 3D and Flash animation content studio founded by animation veterans Dale Hendrickson, Geoffrey Kater and Larry Le Francis. Dale Hendrickson spent eight years as a character designer on THE SIMPSONS, Geoffrey Kater is an award-winning industrial design futurist (THE SILVER SURFER) and Larry Le Francis has over 15 years of long form production, development and marketing experience on THE SIMPSONS, RUGRATS, DUCKMAN and SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, among others.